Sunday, October 25, 2009

The UK Top Five is quite diva-heavy this week, as we see a reality show contestant one-two punch at the top. Alexandra Burke, the X-Factor winner, slides down to number two with her Flo Rida collaboration 'Bad Boys,' giving up the top slot to Popstars: The Rivals winner/X-Factor judge Cheryl Cole. Cole's debut single, despite being rather divisive, was always going to make a big splash, and splash it does, with 290,000 copies sold - over 130,000 of those on its first day of release. Thus it becomes the fastest selling single of 2009, and handily thrusts Cole into the 'Top Stars' bracket. At 4 we have Robbie Williams, whose comeback has been described by the media as both an epic failure and a spectacular win. In reality it's probably somewhere in the middle, but it must be encouraging to all involved that 'Bodies' didn't fall off the face of the earth after its debut last week. The number 5 spot brings us to another artist whose comeback has been a bit questionable. Whitney Houston, once one of the most bankable singers (and actresses) in the business, has fallen on some difficult times in recent years. You might have heard about it. If not, here's the short version: Whitney married Bobby Brown, did some crack, stopped eating, divorced Bobby Brown, and may or may not have quit doing drugs. In any case, her first official comeback single, 'Million Dollar Bill' hardly set the charts on fire out of the gate. But a few weeks on and an AMAZING and shambolic X-Factor performance later, the song vaults up 9 spots to grab Whit's first UK top 5 since 2000. The rest of the top 10 is pretty uneventful, with some minor shuffles of weeks-old tracks, save for the number 10 entry from Young Soul Rebels. The not-unpleasant 'I Got Soul' isn't anything to write home about, but it's better than another Black Eyed Peas track isn't it. The Saturdays continue their swift descent, down 6 to 14, just below Shakira who drops 5 down to 12. 17 and 20 see new entries this week, with Cobra Starship's 'Good Girls Go Bad' and Alphabeat's 'The Spell,' impacting the chart. This is likely as far as both tracks will go, as each were fully released this week. For Cobra Starship this is a great result, while Alphabeat has to be a bit disappointed with such a lowly position for their 2nd album's lead-off single. Christina Aguilera's 'Hurt' enjoys another run at the top 40, re-entering at 25, thanks to its performance on X-Factor, and at 36 we find Lostprophets, whose 'It's Not The End of the World...' faceplants down a full 20 places.